World News

#world news #onwritingwell #missions

William Zinsser, in On Writing Well, writes, 'A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.' Today, yesterday, the past week, for many seasons of my life, I have completely identified with this statement.

My parents finally set up wifi in their home, for weeks I have begged and pleaded for wifi to be set up. I could access the web, write a post a day, be connected, and so when the long-awaited day finally arrived, I sat down to write a post, and did everything else instead.

I have sewed cushions, cleaned, cooked, chatted on facebook, set up instagram and pinterest; I have read, wrestled with my brother, played candy crush for hours and drank untold amounts of coffee...
Still, no post.

Zinsser also comments on the need for writers to force themselves to write. Writing as a career is hard, but in order to do it well, it must be done.

So, I am sitting here this afternoon, and forcing myself to write. Not that this is my career, but this is something that I want to get more involved in.
I think mostly my problem today is actually picking a topic. There's so much on my heart at the moment. I tend to be the kind of person that is involved in a lot of different things. Since coming back from the Cooks I have been involved in nothing. So I've been reading the news, and the news is, well, heart-wrenching.

I don't know how anyone can say that there is no need for missions when you can read of civil wars, children sold into slavery, booming sex trades, murders, violence, cheating, poverty, sickness.

I wonder not only why this is not convincing more people to go, to serve, to set free in the name of Christ, but where is the church?

Are we doing what God called us to do? Are we making an impact? Are we using our spheres of influence to further His kingdom? Are we fulfilling His commands?

Here are links to a few of the news articles I've been reading today:

Nigerian School Girls

Ukraine's Civil War

Polio Outbreaks

I read these and I ask, what are we doing? What am I doing? Sometimes, not much, in my tiny corner of northern Alberta, but the first thing I can do is pray. And God will lead me from there.